LOCH Technologies at the Forefront of CPS-Sec Capabilities

Securing the Future: LOCH Technologies at the Forefront of CPS-Sec Capabilities

At LOCH Technologies, we pride ourselves on integrating innovation and excellence to safeguard the ever-evolving landscape of cyber-physical system (CPS) security. We are proud to announce LOCH being recognized as a CPS security platform vendor in Gartner’s Venture Capital Growth Insights for Cyber-Physical System Security.

CPS Protection Platforms

Gartner defines CPS protection platform as products and services that use knowledge of industrial protocols, network packets or traffic metadata, and physical process asset behavior to discover, categorize, and protect CPS in production or mission-critical environments.

The convergence of IT, OT, Internet of Things (IoT) and physical assets is driving the emergence of CPS security (CPS-Sec) solutions that manage disparate security elements holistically. The amount of information being transmitted from things and the number of connected intelligent devices continue to rise. Much of this data originates outside the enterprise’s control.

With over 80% of such IT, OT & IoT deployments being wireless/RF, wireless is the new network and the new attack surface. This new wireless security blind spot is further exacerbated when communications go beyond WiFi & Bluetooth including broad spectrum RF, cellular 4G/5G, or private/public LTE networks.

At LOCH, we believe in embracing the future. Our dedication to research and development has led us to excel in crafting revolutionary CPS-Sec technologies. We strive to make the Invisible, Visible: AI & ML driven threat intelligence across 4G/LTE/5G deployments, broad spectrum wireless IoT, Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), as well as 802.11/Bluetooth WiFi environments for asset visibility, tracking and continuous security posture management.

CPS Security Challenges

Enterprise prioritization on CPS security and related aspects has been driven by concerns over potential impact to safety, disruption to critical operations as a result of attacks such as ransomware (across all verticals)), the loss of critical intellectual property and operational data, as well as concerns of CPS vulnerabilities being leveraged to launch major campaigns, such as with IoT devices being hijacked to participate in botnets and distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. The legislative and standardization activities of government agencies geared toward regulating the manufacturing and deployment of IoT devices is another driving factor behind the interest in CPS security tools, products and services.

The scale of security risks in the era of digital transformation is therefore much greater, and the “attack surface” is much larger. For example, many devices are deployed with default credentials. Therefore, security products with a variety of capabilities are emerging to help dispel some of these challenges.

Most sensor-based things have minimal computing resources, and the opportunities for anti-malware, encryption and other forms of protection within things are more restricted. A secure device is an endpoint, platform or gateway that applies a “security control” to protect it against physical tampering, cyberattacks that cause a denial/disruption of the endpoint’s service, and/or theft/modification of an endpoint’s function/data.

Market, Investment and Solution Landscape

CPS security is an emerging yet maturing market. The growing number of IoT devices and the increasing convergence of IT with OT infrastructures are impacting a wide range of industries as digital transformation initiatives have been exposing CPS vulnerability at both the individual consumer and enterprise level. As a consequence, security professionals involved with securing this IT-OT convergence, and the digitalization and connectivity of an increasing set of devices are driven to invest in new tools, services and processes to secure such emerging risks. There is also an impact for manufacturers of IoT devices that are facing pressure from enterprises, on one end, and governments, on the other, for improved device and system security standards.

Collectively, these “push” factors are driving investment and innovation in CPS security solutions. Investment into startups innovating in CPS security has grown from $2.9 billion in 2020 to $5.6 billion in 2022:

Different critical factors have been driving investments in this market:

• An inherent lack of security in many IoT devices and OT infrastructures (particularly as a result of the inability to leverage physical separation through air gapping at a time of IT/OT convergence)
• The unpreparedness of traditional IT security vendors to provide the specialized features and architectures needed to secure CPSs
• Increased scale of IoT
• Increased number of attacks

LOCH: Securing the ‘blindspot’ in Wireless/RF CPS

Wireless IoT has given rise to the world’s largest attack surface, with its scope expanding rapidly, particularly with the exponential growth of 5G/LTE deployments. The sheer volume, velocity, and hyperconnectivity of IoT technologies pose unique challenges for today’s networks and organizations, which were not originally designed to manage such an extraordinary scale. Our vertical-centric strategy is designed to meet the unique demands of diverse CPS architectures and use cases, ensuring your business remains one step ahead in the ever-changing security landscape.

With VC investments driving innovation and consolidation in the CPS-Sec market, a clear indication of an established ‘pain-point’ and customer validated ‘use-cases’; we stand firm in our commitment in this transformative space to secure IT, OT & IoT wireless assets.